Any what if moments?

I have a habit of thinking about what if something had happened differently then how it actually happened whenever I read a good book.

For instance, what if Yves Grosclaude or Arnold Giancola got cold feet and confessed before the war restarted. Or what I'm currently pondering is what would have happened if operation thunderbolt had succeeded in taking trevors star and defeating honor.

What thoughts do you have?

What if Robert Pierre survived McQueen Coup rather then Oscar Saint-Just? Or what if McQueen, Pierre, and Saint-Just had all died in the coup?

What if the plot by Monica had succeeded? The current books would be a lot more fun.

kzt wrote:What if the plot by Monica had succeeded? The current books would be a lot more fun.

How so? Monica attacks the wormhole, maybe wins maybe doesn't (I'm leaning towards doesn't but let's give them the benefit of the doubt). Manticore sends Henke down with a few battlecruisers blows them up and takes it back, attacks Monica and blows up the rest of their navy. We're exactly where we ended up, delayed a few months.

Crown Loyalist wrote:

kzt wrote:What if the plot by Monica had succeeded? The current books would be a lot more fun.

How so? Monica attacks the wormhole, maybe wins maybe doesn't (I'm leaning towards doesn't but let's give them the benefit of the doubt). Manticore sends Henke down with a few battlecruisers blows them up and takes it back, attacks Monica and blows up the rest of their navy. We're exactly where we ended up, delayed a few months.

The MAlign's hope for the whole operation was to obtain RMN wreckage from Lynx. If they could get a MDM baffle...

munroburton wrote:
The MAlign's hope for the whole operation was to obtain RMN wreckage from Lynx. If they could get a MDM baffle...

Most of the gear was in shipping crates. Apollo FC, recon drones, Mk23s of all flavors, FTL systems, pretty much everything. The war with the SL gets a lot more interesting if you know they have all the RMNs most advanced tech and enormously more industrial power.

Crown Loyalist wrote:

kzt wrote:What if the plot by Monica had succeeded? The current books would be a lot more fun.

How so? Monica attacks the wormhole, maybe wins maybe doesn't (I'm leaning towards doesn't but let's give them the benefit of the doubt). Manticore sends Henke down with a few battlecruisers blows them up and takes it back, attacks Monica and blows up the rest of their navy. We're exactly where we ended up, delayed a few months.

You answered your own question. You don't think what you've laid out would be interesting reading err fun? Heck, I'd salivate over a chapter or two of just Henkeying around blowing up stuff. I'll take my space battles anyway I can get them. Even if it shortens the timeline by a few months. Hey, the light will still be red when we get there.

I really like what you've laid out.

cthia wrote:

Crown Loyalist wrote:
How so? Monica attacks the wormhole, maybe wins maybe doesn't (I'm leaning towards doesn't but let's give them the benefit of the doubt). Manticore sends Henke down with a few battlecruisers blows them up and takes it back, attacks Monica and blows up the rest of their navy. We're exactly where we ended up, delayed a few months.

You answered your own question. You don't think what you've laid out would be interesting reading? Heck, I'd salivate over a chapter or two Henkeying around blowing up stuff. I'll take my space battles anyway I can get them. Even if it shortens the timeline by a few months. Hey, the light will still be red when we get there.

Unfortunately, what would happen at Lynx all depends on the RMN'S response time and what is available to respond.

1st is the race to stop anything from getting through 5he wormhole by Monica forces. If any dbs or freighters, the RMN knows almost instantly something is happening. If you block the outgoing transit and let nothing through, the RMN'S response automatically turns into multiple hours or days, depending on when something expected never shows up. I assume a DB is passed every hour or 2 for maintaining the alignment of the tempo and conducting status checks and passing mail, but this could be daily.

But, should something get through, and it probably will, we then get to consider the blocking ability at certain times.

Given the light picket of the time, it will probably take somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes to get some of the BCs in position to interdict the wormhole with Energy weapons. Then the freighters carrying pods are brought in an pods are laid, and the BCS are pulled out of energy range and use the pods to interdiction ant transiting ship.

In that first 30-60 minutes, anything armored can probably transit (though under distant missile fire), and as long as any large force is sent during this period, the Monica forces should be unable to hold the wormhole. It will probably take 3-4 hours to send for the nearby freighters, wait for them go arrive and roll pods. During this time, only assaults in force can take the wormhole, as any single ship can easily be destroyed in the ~5 minutes of vulnerability in the emergence lane.

After the pods are emplaced, they will be able to destroy multiple SDs transiting. However, there are no where near the numbers of missile pods seen in any of the RMN wormhole defenses, nor are replacements at hand. So a multiple squadron transit, though bloody, should retake the terminus.

However, if at any time, a single ship escapes the emergence lane and gets it's wedge up, the Monicans have lost. Even a CA can jump into hyper then send in missiles ballistically to destroy the shoals of missile pods, or run and summon the Hercules, which alone is as powerful as a squadron of the Monician BCs, and using pods can batter then form a distance they cannot respond to.

But no matter what, it would have made for an interesting story....

Theemile wrote:
Unfortunately, what would happen at Lynx all depends on the RMN'S response time and what is available to respond.

1st is the race to stop anything from getting through 5he wormhole by Monica forces. If any dbs or freighters, the RMN knows almost instantly something is happening. If you block the outgoing transit and let nothing through, the RMN'S response automatically turns into multiple hours or days, depending on when something expected never shows up. I assume a DB is passed every hour or 2 for maintaining the alignment of the tempo and conducting status checks and passing mail, but this could be daily.

But, should something get through, and it probably will, we then get to consider the blocking ability at certain times.

Given the light picket of the time, it will probably take somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes to get some of the BCs in position to interdict the wormhole with Energy weapons. Then the freighters carrying pods are brought in an pods are laid, and the BCS are pulled out of energy range and use the pods to interdiction ant transiting ship.

In that first 30-60 minutes, anything armored can probably transit (though under distant missile fire), and as long as any large force is sent during this period, the Monica forces should be unable to hold the wormhole. It will probably take 3-4 hours to send for the nearby freighters, wait for them go arrive and roll pods. During this time, only assaults in force can take the wormhole, as any single ship can easily be destroyed in the ~5 minutes of vulnerability in the emergence lane.

After the pods are emplaced, they will be able to destroy multiple SDs transiting. However, there are no where near the numbers of missile pods seen in any of the RMN wormhole defenses, nor are replacements at hand. So a multiple squadron transit, though bloody, should retake the terminus.

However, if at any time, a single ship escapes the emergence lane and gets it's wedge up, the Monicans have lost. Even a CA can jump into hyper then send in missiles ballistically to destroy the shoals of missile pods, or run and summon the Hercules, which alone is as powerful as a squadron of the Monician BCs, and using pods can batter then form a distance they cannot respond to.

But no matter what, it would have made for an interesting story....

No, by the time Terekov sailed to Monica, wdren't all the forts guarding the wormhole on line and armed with Apollo missiles? Plus the bulk of O'Malley's SDs against 13 BCs? Interesting little battle... not. and Anisimovna and Bardasano knew it going in. Heck, they even played technodyne on that one.

kzt wrote:

munroburton wrote:
The MAlign's hope for the whole operation was to obtain RMN wreckage from Lynx. If they could get a MDM baffle...

Most of the gear was in shipping crates. Apollo FC, recon drones, Mk23s of all flavors, FTL systems, pretty much everything. The war with the SL gets a lot more interesting if you know they have all the RMNs most advanced tech and enormously more industrial power.

WeirdlyWired wrote:No, by the time Terekov sailed to Monica, wdren't all the forts guarding the wormhole on line and armed with Apollo missiles? Plus the bulk of O'Malley's SDs against 13 BCs? Interesting little battle... not. and Anisimovna and Bardasano knew it going in. Heck, they even played technodyne on that one.

No. The Battle of Monica was before Lovat and before Manticore, so obviously Apollo wasn't something the MAlign knew about, nor would it have been available in Lynx. If there were no Apollo forts in Manticore later, there sure as hell were none in Lynx.

The rest of the tech, sure, which makes it interesting enough - Oversteegen was able to put up a decent performance with MK23 units against an Apollo-equipped force in sims.

O'Malley's battle squadrons were stationed in Lynx after Terekhov raised the alarm, in response to the Monica plot. The Lynx terminus was picketed with almost nothing more than a pair of obsolete ships guarding a bunch of forts under construction - I vaguely recall this being mentioned near the start of SoS.

It would've been a disaster for the RMN if all 14 BCs showed up. 3 of them almost killed Terekhov's squadron - no question they'd go through that tiny picket like a hot knife through butter. Then they might have access to everything but Apollo in the form of partially assembled fort modules unless the picket commander pulled a Higgins.